Computing and communication networks typically include network devices, such as routers, firewalls, switches or gateways, which transfer or switch data, such as packets, from one or more sources to one or more destinations. Network devices may operate on the packets as the packets traverse the network, such as by forwarding or filtering the packet-based network traffic. Packets may be temporarily stored in queues as packets move through the network devices.
While processing packets, a network device may allocate memory resources that enable the packets to be temporarily stored in a memory (e.g., a queue, a buffer, etc.) and may deallocate memory resources when the temporarily stored packets are read from the memory and/or outputted by the network device. For example, the network device may temporarily store packets by first performing a search to identify a location (e.g., an address, a pointer, etc.), within the memory, at which to temporarily store the packets. Often times, however, a quantity of searches to be performed by the network device and/or a period of time associated with performing a search may cause the network device to process packets in a manner that disrupts a network service, reduces a quality of service associated with the network, and/or causes congestion on the network.